Monday, September 23, 2013

Central bank to mop up Rs 10 billion through reverse repo

The central
bank is – for the third time in last one month – moping up the excess liquidity
tomorrow from the banks to maintain the money supply and help contain the
inflation, apart from stabilising the interest rates.

It is the third
round of reverse repo in a month as the amount of loanable funds in the banking
system remains surplus, according to the central bank that is undertaking
another reverse repo worth Rs 10 billion tomorrow.

As of the
current week, commercial banks alone have around Rs 60 billion loanable funds
in their vaults.

According
to the empirical studies, Rs 30 billion excess liquidity in the market would
push the inflation up by five per cent. But, the market is flush with Rs 60
billion excess liquidity, also due to NRB’s reduction of CRR that will push the
inflation upto around 15 per cent in the current fiscal year despite Monetary
Policy and Fiscal Policy’s target of containing the inflation at eight per cent.

Likewise,
the rise in inflation will fuel the poverty incidents in the country.

However, the
central bank is trying to mob up the excess liquidity through a seven-day
reverse repo so that financial institutions with excess liquidity can invest in
an interest bearing instrument.

In the
reverse repo, the central bank accepts deposits from banks against collateral
of securities with it at a certain rate. The first reverse repo rate was at
0.078 per cent, while the second one was fixed at 0.06 per cent.

Last week, the
central bank undertook outright purchase auction for securities worth Rs 8.5
billion also to mop up excess liquidity.
Likewise, on September 4 and September 10, it issued reverse repo worth Rs 5 billion
and Rs 10 billion, respectively, after three years.

During the
first reverse repo of Rs 5 billion on September 4, financial institutions bid
for up to Rs 10 billion, while in the second one some 26 financial institutions
presented bids worth Rs 42 billion as they, currently have excess liquidity.

The central
bank’s intervention will also help maintain certain level of interest rates,
according to the Nepal Rastra Bank that has been trying to bring a balance
between deposit and lending by mopping up some funds to avoid interest rates
from going bottom low.

Like some
years earlier, the lower interest rates might help money going to informal or
semi-formal sectors in search for higher interest putting the financial system
under risk.